Who We Are – Luke
Our Who We Are campaign celebrates our key workers - connecting communities, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic – and beyond as well. We’re recognising people at the heart of our business, across the pipeline, as they describe who they are in their own words.
We want to receive nominations from around the Group for deserving colleagues to be recognised in this way. Send yours to communications@royalmail.com.
‘It feels really nice to be nominated for the Who We Are campaign,’ said Luke. ‘It was quite a surprise as we [Fleet] are a bit of a forgotten part of the company in a lot of respects. In the public eye, I don’t think a lot of people are aware that Royal Mail Fleet even exists.
‘I do feel Fleet gets left in the background a little bit – but I think that’s changing. I believe the operation is really seeing the benefit of having our own in-house Fleet workshops to keep our vehicles on the road.
‘Certainly, throughout the pandemic, the communication between myself and the operators – or the customers – has changed quite dramatically and we’re a lot closer now. We do regular Skype calls and reporting updates just to make sure that they’re fully aware of what’s happening with their vehicles.’
Luke was nominated for the Who We Are campaign by Veesh Rathod, HR Business Partner at Leicester MPU. Veesh said Luke has been ‘an outstanding workshop manager’ who has ‘most definitely gone above and beyond and done everything that has been asked of him – not only to hit the targets that he’s had within the Leicester workshop, but also by looking after all of his staff and making sure that they’re properly supported.’
Looking after his team is important to Luke, and he’s passionate about communicating with them effectively. ‘It’s great to involve everybody in the day-to-day stuff,’ said Luke. ‘Communication is key. I think if you let your team know about performance targets and where the business is heading as a whole, it gives them more of a responsibility and makes them feel like they’re a more valued part of the team.
‘On a daily basis, I tell them how proud I am of them – both Leicester and Nottingham, who I look after as well. They have all done a really amazing job throughout this pandemic.
‘In the first lockdown, everything went really quiet. When they pulled all the inspections and services and we stopped doing all the MOTs, trying to keep people engaged was quite difficult. We needed to keep the vans on the road, so the target was just to fix anything and everything that came through the door. As a team, we’re really good at that.
‘With the second lockdown, with all the work that has now come back into the workshop, there’s a lot more pressure. But if someone needs a hand, we’re all happy to muck in and help. If someone needs assistance – even in their personal life – I think they know they can come to me and I’ll do everything I can to help them.’
This year has been a succession of new challenges for Luke – something he says he relishes facing. But he says he won’t be sad to wave goodbye to 2020.
‘Looking back on 2020, I think we’ll all be glad to see the back of it really!’ he said. ‘For me, it has been a lot of change this year. I only started this position in January. I’ve been given the opportunity to step up and see what I can do. In that respect it has been quite a good year - through change and the positive opportunities that I’ve been given.
‘I think “thrown in at the deep end” is probably a good way of explaining it because it’s my first full experience as a standalone manager. To do it in a pandemic has been fun.’
Click here to catch Luke, along with some of our other Who We Are nominees, on the latest RMtv.
